Photo : YONHAP News
North Korea has ordered artillery units near its border to fully prepare to launch fire.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) reported Sunday that the preliminary instructions were delivered to the units the previous day.
Citing the spokesperson of the North’s general staff, the state-run news agency said that eight artillery brigades were instructed to turn to fire readiness condition by 20:00 Sunday to shoot down South Korean drones if they cross the border again.
The KCNA said that the North Korean military is also getting ready to a possible escalation of armed conflict in the event South Korean unmanned aerial vehicles are shot down by the artillery units.
Earlier on Sunday, South Korea warned North Korea that it will see “the end of its regime” if it causes any harm to its people.
The warning came in response to the statement by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, who threatened a “horrible disaster” over the alleged South Korean drone flights over its capital.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry claimed on Friday that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets were detected in the skies over Pyongyang on Oct. 3, 9 and 10.
South Korea’s Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun initially denied the alleged drone flights but the Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it could not confirm whether the North’s claim was true.